dynamics of culture & space creation in democracy monsoon 2010 la

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landscapeno. 29 | monsoon 2010 29

lanning cities is a process, which

often contradicts its own objec-

tives; wasting natural as well as

human resources. The process is

usually high-jacked by the busi-

ness-political lobby. Given this situation

the role of the architect/planner may be

understood to bring the process back on

the rail. Space, is given through a plan,rather than selected through a process of

critique. On the other hand space outside

the municipal limits is sold before any

formal plan is made for the region. Hence,

we have two processes that are simulta-

neous to each other, which make a city;

one which is a time consuming planning

process, while the other the so called il-

legal process which the government le-

gitimizes post facto. The former always

lags behind while the latter which runs

ahead of the need and is realized without

reference to development rules. Both the

processes are simultaneous to, and con-

temporary of, each other. The former

works on the basis of rules and theories

that are in vogue, thus idealizing the ob-

jectives of city planning while the latter

is ruthlessly pragmatic, accommodative

Narendra Dengle

of the aspirations but with no regard for

equity of public space or the constraints

that a city plan must address.

Both the processes lead to forming cities

with little or no qualified participation

from the common man. The governance

and politics of making of cities has a com-

pletely different culture, which has noth-ing to do with romanticized definition of

the word. Communities are formed regard-

less of how housing is designed and for

whom.

It is a human instinct to live in communi-

ties and form habitations. The form of ur-

ban communities transforms based on as-

pirations and survival instinct. The pro-

cesses that make cities and the sensibili-

ties of people seem at loggerheads all the

time. In countries where the form of gov-

ernance is other than democratic, the pro-

cesses seem outwardly simple since

peoples’ aspirations are unilaterally sur-

mised as per convenience and priorities

of the ruler. In democratic countries one

hopes for a better opportunity for provid-

ing for needs of all sections of society.

l a n d s c a p e & p l a n n i n g |



30 landscape no. 29 | monsoon 2010

Therefore, when we use the term ‘cul-

ture’ in the context of space creation,

we must be aware of the larger umbrella

of politics that overshadows its activi-

ties. Traditions, performing cultures,

ways of life of traditional communities,

rural migratory population settling

down as squatters in cities, built and

natural heritage, flora and fauna, and

ecology of place all become seminar

and research topics, which do not keep

pace with forces of development that

make cities. However, their value can

never be belittled. The Congress, the

BJP, the BSP, the MNS, and the CPM

would have their own respective ver-

sions and interpretations of what cul-

ture means. But what we are concerned

with is the culture which effects allo-

cating and planning of space, how eq-

uity and sustainability are viewed, and

which aspects of such affectations need

to be decoded for cultivation or rejec-

tion keeping in view the equation be-

tween the universal and the individual.

The scale of personalized monuments

favored by a ruling party, can be gro-

tesque, perpetuating personality cults.

‘Le Grand Paris’ project invited ten

prominent architects, whom president

Sarkozy, told, “I don’t want a virtual

city: I want projects. You have abso-

lute freedom, and means to go with it .”

In the tradition of the past presidents

like Mitterand, who left the neo French

national library and the Louvre pyra-

mid in glass, followed by Chirac, who

left Muse du Quai Branly, Sarkozy too

wants to leave a mark of his political

rule through an expression of architec-

ture. “Sarkozy wouldn't stop at the city

limits. He wants to transform a vast

region, larger than the département of

Ile de France, into a model city for the

21st century-sustainable, visionary,

‘post-Kyoto,’ and polycentric. Except

that at its center would of course be

Paris, ‘le Vrai, le Beau, le Grand’ - the

true, the beautiful, the great. The Presi-

dent used that quote from Victor Hugo's

long essay Paris in presenting the work

of ten internationally established archi-

tects whom he had called on for ideas

for these model city-big, high-minded

ideas, but not necessarily concrete

ones.”1 The socialist opposition has

called Sarkozy’s plan a ‘Trojan Horse’

to reclaim power in Paris and the sur-

rounding areas mostly run by the left.

This confirms the tendency of perpetu-

ating personality cults, using architec-

tural hallmarks to perpetuate legacy,

rule etc. The same tendency is visible

at the municipal or panchayat level al-

beit with a cascading downward scale.

One would also recall that to demolish

religious faith Stalin consequentially

went on destroying churches! Gandhi’s

leadership of the freedom struggle in-

dicates that he made a very enlightened

effort in bringing together citizens from

different cultures to fight the British.

In his essay, ‘Talking the political cul-

turally’, G P Deshpande concludes,

“The left and the liberals knew their

politics. They came to culture via their

pol itica l. Gandhi came to pol iti cal

through his culture.”2

If one were to draw a parallel in city

planning, one would realize that our

planners and politicians have been plan-

ning public spaces and monuments with

reference to satisfying the market forces

rather than by supporting the empow-

erment of the poor. Space in urban me-

tropolises like Mumbai land is eyed to

maximize profit making and remaining

politically secure at the cost of equity

in public space. The case of the mills

lands3 in Mumbai is an example how

some of the useful suggestions made

Dhakta Shaikh Salla, Pune. Space behind a her-

itage structure being viewed for a major redevel-

opment





by Charles Correa committee were

brushed aside and along with it the op-

portunity to prevent use of ‘blanket FSI’

and carve out public amenity space.

Space has come out of the domain of

culture as it were and has become the

most lucrative mine for exploitation by

developer-politician lobby without ref-

erence to communities or environment.

Correa says, ‘For energy can create a

city- but it can also destroy it.’ The

struggle between the polemic of want-

ing to invent a new future space, by

severing links with history and by also

desperately forging links with it is a

critical one. Science, technology, or

image of another city, a new culture of

commutations and communications on

the one hand, while on the other- look-

ing into history, associations and tradi-

tions that anchor our sensibilities to

socio-physical context must be seen as

two sides of the same coin.

That cities have to be the ‘engines of economic activity’ does not automati-

cally mean eradication of associations

and history of the place. The conserva-

tion movement in this country has been

effective in conserving places of local

importance. However, an offshoot of

the conservation struggle also points to

recreating past, through the built form

and detail. The community of architects

is divided in their view of what might

be called creative development. Some

architects have put the blame on the

leading early modernists for ‘ruining’

the great Indian tradition by imposing

a new kind of architecture, which in

their opinion was neither traditional nor

leading to forming new Indian tradi-

tions. In the polemics of modernity and

tradition, what is conceived without ref-

erence to people and climate becomes

destructive in that it is neither friendly

with the environment nor with people.

Space is not the sole prerogative of

physical planners for their vision and

intervention. They no more believe that

they are the chosen ones, who, in fact,

understand what, and how decisions

should be made with regard to land

equity, culture and space. Some prefer

tagging along influential politicians or simply being businessmen in the pro-

fession that they have turned into a

trade. This culture has damaged the

process of conceiving and making qual-

ity space. An individual’s relation to

society is of prime importance in de-

mocracy. The Constitution of India

states that the law is same for all, how-

ever, regionalism and regional politics

twists the sense of freedom quite dif-

ferently. This too having entered the

psyche of the people their intolerance

of other faiths and cultures has reached

monstrous proportions.

The culture of space creation may be

recognized in the categories of: 1. Fam-

ily and neighborhood, 2. Acquisition,

promotion and business (of things and

ideas), 3. Waste generation & disposal,

4. Recreation & indulgence, 5. Civic

codes, governance, and peoples’ partici-

pation, 6. Image and mimesis, 7. Per-

forming and creative aspirations, and

8. Modes of alienation and withdrawal

from society. It may be possible to go

into these categories in depth in schools

of architecture for a deeper understand-

ing of the inner dynamics and develop

programs that address studies in cul-

tural theories and humanities. It would be useful to find commonalities among

different cultures rather than highlight

their differences to understand what a

secular or fusion space would promise.

This would be a space that everyone

would like to belong to. The pillars of

Mahabaleshwar Bazar – Traditional public space

unexplored in the new context





democracy are said to be its electorate,

parl iament and judiciary, duly sup-

ported by peoples’ activism. There is

no authority outside you and you alone

are responsible for good democraticgovernance should be the forth coming

message. No occupation can be with-

out an activist arm that intervenes in

the process of decision making. In ar-

chitecture and planning this would be

felt acutely because any decision to do

with land-may it be reservation, defin-

ing urban-rural boundaries, any hierar-

chy of public spaces, the increase in

FSI, rules like TDR, SEZ, CRZ, SRA,

changes in land use, policies to do with

land reservations and de -reservationsetc. would all directly affect the life in

cities. If there is a culture in political

decisions about land it would have to

address two issues directly which are:

1. equity, and 2. individual freedom.

These must apply holistically to space

that is meant for transport, recreation,

congregation, and cultural practices

that are traditionally followed by com-

munities. Existing wadis, urban vil-

lages, and illegal squatter colonies pose

a major issue, where settlements areorganically grown and speak of adjust-

ments and accommodation within the

given constraints of land. The entire

habitation spills out and uses the streets,

courts, and spaces of all shapes and ge-

ometry for numerous functions. It chal-

lenges all bookish standards. Byelaws

about minimum setbacks between

buildings are disregarded and balconies

and extensions of plinths meet each

other.

Shirish Patel has welcomed the

president’s speech wherein she said that

‘the government would extend finan-

cial support to states that are willing to

assign property rights to people living

in slum areas’, and criticized the in-

equality that has become part of Indian

psyche, supported by the Supreme

Court. Patel feels “however unlikely

that outcome may be, this is a wonder-

ful statement that goes to the heart of

the problem of housing the poor in our

cities. It also goes to the heart of the

problem of drawing the poor into the

mainstream of an entrepreneurial soci-

ety, with all its dreams, rewards and

limitless opportunities.”4 It is indeed a

welcome trend to find architects tak-

ing the government to task on its com-

prehension of the problem and bureau-

cratic procedures that distort and delay

some key decisions. The more the pres-

sure on the bureaucracy from the pro-

fessionals the better it would be so far

as equity of space is concerned. Cov-

ered space is not a priority for the

dweller in slums, who is happy to rent

it out and stay in ad hoc shelters with

lower performance. The present system





that makes plans for cities does not re-

gard peoples’ participation with an open

mind. The elaborate procedures fol-

lowed for ‘hearings’ betrays the inten-

tion and its ineffective percolation

down to final decision making. Policies

with regard to private and public trans-

port inevitably favor individual trans-

port that demands large spaces for com-

mutation and parking. There is no in-

built scientific process to ensure that

the spatial fabric of traditional commu-

nities is not torn apart, culturally. The

newer need of interfaces between dif-

ferent cultural practices needs a better

and more sensitive comprehension so

as to arrive at fusion rather than fission

in our public life. The process demands

a public platform that is creative at

drawing insights from our pluralist so-

ciety, whose recommendations should

be mandatory for the development au-

thority to follow. Architects and plan-

ers having realized this have become

active in the field-many playing an en-tirely different role than the traditional

professional. Schools have to be more

aware and proactive to inculcate among

the students and faculty that architec-

ture and planning have to be people-

faced rather than developer-faced.

The other issue is that of the individual

in the society. Since culture essentially

redefines the associations between in-

dividuals and society, individual and

government, individual and commu-

nity, the question of the individual’s

enlightenment and his/her aspirations

of democracy become vital in under-

standing their cultural dialectic. Cities

can not be frozen even though built; but

they should rather be flexible and re-

bu il dable li ke clothes, whic h are

darned. The idea of ‘Fibre City’ which

is being discussed by Maki and others

in Japan comes very close to this no-

tion of making a city where carrying

out amendments may be possible.

A major distortion that occurs in

cityscapes is ironically also due to ar-

chitectural competitions aimed at el-

evating a city’s image. The examples

of Pots Damer Platz in Berlin and the

space making practiced in the Middle

East tell us that fanciful image makingdisregards traditions, memories and as-

sociations rather contemptuously to in-

dulge in form making based on an in-

dividual artists’ fancy. Fanciful image

making- needing expansive and expen-

sive technological support-lays claims

to be futuristic form and is much sought

after by local municipal corporations.

Since some of the star architects are

busy with such architecture they have

a notion of culture which dissociates

rather than associates with visual tra-

ditions.

Bernard Tschumi discusses this at

length and says, “we inhabit a fractured

space, made of accidents, where figures

are disintegrated, dis-integrated. From

a sensibility developed during centuries

around the ‘appearance of a stable im-

age’ (“balance”, “equilibrium”, “har-

mony”), today we favor a disappear-

ance of unstable images: first movies

(twenty four images per second), then

television. The computer-generated

images, and recently (among a few ar-

chitects) disjunction, dislocations,

deconstructions.”5 Deepak Chopra be-

lieves6 that around 24 % of the world’s

population is interested in creative life,

26% in fundamentalism through reli-gion and the rest of it is in pursuit of

greed and individual selfish ambitions.

Although small in percentage it is the

24 % that is actually engaged in giving

positive vision to the world and looks

forward to creating a peaceful society.

FACING PAGE | Shrirangam, a unique temple-city

struggling to come to terms with the automobile

THIS PAGE | Shrirangam Temple Complex, Thou-

sand Pillar Hall being used as a cycle assembling

industry





But, individual visions also take a leapover given situations and can be poten-

tially truly visionary. Unlike in the past

these are no more artists’ individual

images but rather a product of brain

storming amongst committed and spir-

ited qualified professionals and aca-

demics. Individual has many ways at

his/her disposal to react and respond to

surroundings and happenings, and also

to recreate space around. Discussing the

perennial question about modernity and

tradition, Tschmi says, “But are mod-ern versus classical or vernacular im-

ages really the issue? Pitched roofs

against flat roofs? Is it really a key ques-

tion? Of course not. I would claim that

our contemporary condition affects his-

toricists and modernists alike.”7

Tschumi’s question takes it for granted

that one is discussing the physical form

when one talks of tradition rather than

the hierarchy of spaces that a tradition

creates and reshapes now and then. The

confrontation between issues connectedwith visual traditions and non visual

traditions on one hand and the

contemporariness on the other is really

and essentially about sensibilities.

Since the matters of culture can be elu-

sive as these may be attempted to link

with languages, regions, faiths and soforth, it may be useful to diagrammatize

ones’ study of culture. As architects we

are converting functions and programs

into diagrams, it would be useful to

explore if our perceptions of culture,

living habits and patterns can at all be

diagrammatized. It would seem futile

to carry on with programs that are de-

void of cultural understanding. Usually

the living patterns, and community

space are ‘studied’ and ‘analyzed’ but

rarely translated into synthetic dia-grams before a design is crystallized.

Such synthetic diagrams may not repeat

and reproduce spaces as they exist.

Nature manifests in the mutations that

occur in the phenomena. Many build-

ers, I am told, have guidelines for their

architects, which control perimeters,

lobby sizes, in economic proportion of

the BHK vocabulary that is in vogue.

It has very little to do with affordability

as is geared to enhance profitability of

the capitalist builder-developer.

The culture diagram, which may be a

subjective decision, arrived at as much

objectively as possible, would address

the hitherto unknown area of culture

synthetically and creatively. Such ‘cul-

tural diagrams’, if at all they can becalled that, would deal with memories,

associations with environments of the

emigrant and migrant populations, his-

tory, conservation etc; all of which sit

on the fringes of architecture and yet

remain elusive to architecture, and thus

would have a better opportunity to

mutate, rather than repeat. Peter

Eisenman discusses anteriority and in-

teriority of spaces in his book ‘Diagram

Diaries’.8 But one wonders if such dia-

grams can be evoked to comprehendcultural polarity in society, and resolve

spaces for the masses in particular- may

this be in terms of transport systems,

ownership of public spaces, properties

for slum dwellers, recognizing zones of

heritage sites, and rivers and sea faces

that sustain traditional communities and

marine life-whatever. After all, we are

concerned with a design that looks on

to future- conceived in present- often

dealing with past, and hence need to

be armed with creative perceptions con-sisting of layers of reality. Traditional

examples would point a way-especially

when it comes to how housing is con-

ceived and built by people. Can this be

a viable option to an aspirant in a me-

tropolis? The slum colonies show that

Temple, village near Panchgani, perpetual poten-

tial for contemporary public space





it is possible. We have been conditionedto identify cultures with regional char-

acteristics. While that may well be

valid, it would be useful to think of

common and overlapping areas of sen-

sibilities that connect rather than iso-

late cultures of regions. One knows of

movements in the north, which sepa-

rated the Urdu, from the Hindi and the

Hindustani. While a uniform language

is wholly impossible to conceive nei-

ther is it needed, one has also to dis-

cover common aspects that bring people together. Communication takes

place when sensibilities resonate with

one another. An abstract painter may

gain from looking at traditional crafts.

The so called classical style music has

to be understood as that with a long tra-

dition. A folk song is as classical as

something that is urban: this is a fact

that we must begin to appreciate. The

notion of ‘classical’ is owed to Hegel

when he discussed a ‘history of litera-

ture and arts’.

In planning and architecture our under-

standing needs to be free of the notion

that architecture is and only for cities.

Design programs conceived without the

cultural and physical context and con-

fined only to plots must now be ex- panded to understand contextual urban

issues that consider people along with

the physical topography. In a democ-

racy social disparities are replaced by

disparities between ruling classes and

the ruled but it offers us a self rectify-

ing mechanism, capable of putting

breaks to oppressive and self indulgent

rules. An architect needs to transcend

his personal social-cultural background

by a creative participation in the plan-

ning process and with a paradigm shiftin favour of people and environment.

He/she also needs to realize that ‘go-

ing back to or repeating tradition’ is

certainly no way of facing contempo-

rary reality. We needs to challenge the

norms which anyway seem to be alien

or imported, and discover the form of

new space by recognizing emerging

new urban communities.

Waghatore, Goa. Coastal Zone Regulation (CRZ)

limit ensures conservation of 20 km belt inland

Narendra Dengle (born’48) is a practicing architect and academic. His works, since 1974 include rural and urban

projects addressing contemporary cultural, environmental and aesthetic issues. He is Design Chair at Kamla Raheja

Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture and Environmental Studies, Mumbai and member – the Urban Conservation Commit-

tees for Pune and Mahabaleshwar. His book ‘Jharoka’ , on critical issues in architecture was released in 2007. He has made

films on Architectural Appreciation. E-mail: [email protected]

1. Wells Walter, Big Plans for Grand Paris, France Today,

June 2009

2. Deshpande G P, ‘ Talking the Political Culturally’, page

12, Thema Kolkata, 2009

3. Correa Charles, ‘Recycling Urban Land’, ‘Mills for Sale-

the way ahead’, edited by Darryl D’Monte, Marg Publi-

cations, 2006

4. Patel Shirish, ‘This Land is Your Land’, The Indian Ex-

press, June 18, 2009

5. Tschumi Bernard, ‘Architecture and Disjunction’, page

217, MIT Press 1996

6. Chopra Deepak, a recent TV interview

7. Tschumi Bernard, ‘Architecture and Disjunction’, page

231, MIT Press 1996

8. Eisenman Peter, Diagram Diaries’ Thames & Hudson,

1999

References

All images courtesy the author.


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